The emails in which Colin Powell slams Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Updated on: September 14, 2016 / 5:59 PM
/ CBS News

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell ripped into Hillary Clinton in several personal emails over the years, according to a document dump of hacked emails on the website DCLeaks.com.

The document batch, which included emails from June of 2014 to August of 2016, gave a revealing look into the former secretary's thoughts on the 2016 election.

In one 2015 email, Powell commented on Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure at the State Department and charged that "everything HRC touches she kind of screws up."

In another message from 2014, Powell said of a still-potential Clinton presidential run: "I would rather not have to vote for her." A spokesperson for Powell confirmed to CBS News that his email had been hacked.

CBS News waded through the documents and picked out some of the most interesting emails blasting the Democratic presidential nominee. Take a look:

Powell: "I would rather not have to vote for her"

In one blunt 2014 email with Democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds, Powell had this to say of Clinton:

"I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect. A 70-year person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy,not [sic] transformational, with a husband still d**king bimbos at home (according to the NYP)."

"Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up"

In another email to Leeds on Aug. 18, 2015, Powell weighed in on his own use of private emails for State Department business:

"Agree, press has started asking Peggy and me about our use. We have answered 3 IG questionaire [sic] and are clean. A newsie asked today to interview me on my use. Told them to read my book, Chapter on "Brainware." They are going to d**k up the legitimate and necessary use of emails with friggin record rules. I saw email more like a telephone than a cable machine. As long as the stuff is unclassified. I had some secure State.gov machine. Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris. I told you about the gig I lost at a University because she so overcharged them they came under heat and couldn't any fees for awhile. I should send her a bill. Trump conceivable take it to the convention. He appeals to the worst angels of the GOP nature and poor white folks. Just finished a book by a guy named Llosa about loss of culture. It was reviewed in the WSJ last week. Culture is going and with it the ties that bind. An increasing theme in my speeches-----celebrification of our society..FOX got the highest ratings ever after the debate so Ailes makes friends again with Trump and sends Megyn Kelly off to get over her period. Hey, noting personal, just business."

"Dumb"

In a recent email dated Aug. 23, 2016, Powell called Clinton's excuse for using an email server a "dumb" one:

Dumb. She should have done a "Full Monty" at the beginning. She was using email when she took over. They put the personal system in the basement a few months later. The dinner was June 16th. She didn't need any advice or ok from me; she was already doing it. I gave her written guidance on why and how I had been doing it. I warned her staff three ties over the past two years not to try to connect it to me. I am not sure HRC even knew or understood what was going on in the basement.

Powell threw a "mini tantrum" at Clinton campaign

In an Aug. 28 email this year, Powell described some encounters with Hillary Clinton's campaign staff "burying the email flap":

...Spent last week with Cheryl Mills and the HRC team burying the email flap. Madeleine [Albright] also says she doesn't remember the dinner conversation or launching such a conversation. Sad thing it that HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me into it. I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampston's party to get their attention. She keeps tripping into these "character" minefields.

People "dislike her intensely"

In an Aug. 21 email bashing Donald Trump, Powell talked about his frustration with Clinton, as well.

It could have been so easy for her just tell what she did, a "Full Monte." Last night several folks came up to me to say "She threw you under the bus." I replied 'don't be silly, she is under the bus.' The FBI guys loved me and so did the IG types. But conversation turned to: "Clintons always trying to use you." Most folks up here detest Trump and won't vote for him, but dislike her intensely at the same time. Ah, well the country will decide. The NYT piece yesterday on emails was fine and balanced. I worked with the reporter. I found out from her about the book coming out. No alert from State or HRC team. Same with WP reporter. He gave me info that had been leaked to them. Trump just looks stupid trying to appeal to blacks and Latinos.

Trump's birther movement was "racist"

In an Aug. 21 email, Powell called the birther movement "racist" -- a movement Trump started when he asked for Mr. Obama to release his birth certificate during the 2008 election:

Yup, the whole birther movement was racist. That's what the 99% believe. When Trump couldn't keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim. As I have said before, "What if he was?" Muslims are born as Americans every day. The transcript thing was also racist. The President graduated Harvard and was editor of the Law Review. And now decades later Trump wants to see his transcripts to see if he should have been admitted. And for him to say yesterday that within four years he would have 95% of blacks voting for him is schizo fantasy. But no one could believe him. And Ailes as an adviser won't heal with women, don't you think? Ailes may soon be up on charges.

"If Donald were to somehow win..."

The possibility of a Trump win came up in this email from Powell to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in June.

"If Donald were to somehow win, by the end of the first week in office he'd be saying "What the hell did I get myself into?"

"Trump is a national disgrace"

In this email from June, Powell called Trump a "national disgrace" and said that Democrats needn't attack him, since he was already "destroying himself:"

No need to debate it with you now, but Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah. Even Gerson, Krauthammer and Will are beating on him. He is in the process of destroying himself, no need for Dems to attack him. Paul Ryan is calibrating his position again.

Powell to media: "time to start ignoring him"

In December, he wrote to CNN's Fareed Zakaria about the "latest outrage" from Trump and said it was "time to start ignoring him:"

No, I am being called by everyone re Trump. It is time to start ignoring him. You guys are playing his game, you are his oxygen. He outraged us again today with his comments on Paris no-go for police districts. I will watch and pick the timing, not respond to the latest outrage..